Mothmeister’s Unsettling, Remote Portraits of the Grotesque

“Mothmeister” is the moniker of the duo behind surreal, fantastical, and unsettling portraits of lonesome clowns and other creatures across varying backdrops. They call their fictional universe Wounderland, a place where the Instagram culture is reflected in drab, masked figures often accompanied by stuffed and mounted animals, a product of the two’s fascination pf and collecting habits in taxidermy.

Nearly 200 Wounderland portraits are currently for sale on the Mothmeister’s Etsy page. The Belgian pair have been collecting the pieces, masks, and costumes used in their photos for more than two decades. The couple often opts for remote locations, sometimes taking hours to travel to destinations. “Wounderland is a no man’s land, far away from ugly concrete cities and their stressed-out human inhabitants,” they told 7Q Interview. “We prefer to shoot in barren landscapes, without any voyeurs around. We travel to remote sceneries on foot, packed like mules with all our costumes, taxidermy, and equipment.”

This very quality seems to defy a culture of those who feel the need to capture hundreds of selfies throughout their weeks, with backgrounds that offer symbols of status to those who follow. There’s also a Victorian edge to the images, adding to the eeriness of each lonely portrait.